Swimming Lessons
by shadow-spawn180
Summary: Sonic? Taking swimming lessons? Anything for his little bro'. Watch as the antics ensue! Takes place directly after Sonic the Hedgehog 2. Please Read & Review! No flames, though.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or any other related characters. Sega does. **

**Thanks goes out to JudasFm for letting me borrow a few of her ideas from her story, _Rising Star_. Go check it out!**

Sonic the Hedgehog stared distastefully at the lake that seemed to stretch endlessly before him. Yep, it was definitely Aquatic Ruin Zone. Tails had insisted on giving him a swimming lesson as soon as Robotnik had left Westside Island. "It'll be fun," he'd said. "You'll have a blast," he'd said. Why Sonic had ever agreed to it in the first place he'd never know- it was probably Tails' 'puppy-dog eyes' routine what did him in, but the issue was still being debated- but he did know that he was going to regret it by the end of the lesson.

"Tails, why exactly do you want me to take _swimming_ lessons?" He spat the word _swimming_ as if it had been coated in venom several times before being thrown against a wasp's nest.

"Oh, com'mon Sonic! It's loads'a fun! And 'sides, how else are you gonna learn unless you have someone to teach you?"

"But when am I ever going to use this stuff in real life?... On second thought, don't answer that." Sonic shuddered. "I still don't see why I agreed to do this."

"Com'mon Sonic! I thought you could do everything…"

The hedgehog grinned sheepishly. "Gee kid, you're makin' me blush. Flattery will get you everywhere."

Tails furrowed his eyebrows and scratched his head. "But I'm not flat _or_ in a tree!"

"_Flattery._ It means… Never mind, I'll tell you later."

Tails nodded understandingly. After a short pause, he stood straight up, puffed out his chest, and said, "Alright everyone. Are we ready for class today?"

Sonic chuckled a little and put on his best 'kid' voice. "Yes, Mr. Prower."

"Good," Tails said with a fair amount of 'matter-of-fact' in his voice. "Now take off your shoes."

"Why? So they don't get soggy in the lake?"

"Well, yeah, I guess that, but mostly so's you don't run away before you get in th' water."

"Heh heh… smart kid." Sonic disdainfully slipped both of his shoes off and handed them over to Tails.

"Great!" the fox said with a huge grin on his face. "Now, jus' jump on in!"

_How can you be so enthusiastic about this?_ Sonic thought caustically. "Um, Tails? There's something you should know about me and water…"

"You already _tol' _me that you were a high-door phobe, Sonic."

"That's hydrophobe! 'Hydro,' as in 'water,' and 'phobe,' as in 'deathly afraid of!' Sonic stood there for a moment to let his words sink in. Tails didn't get the point, though; he just stared back at the hedgehog blankly. He sighed and continued, "Anyway, that's not what I was going to tell you. You see, by the off chance that I _do_ get thrown into water, I sink like a stone."

The young fox looked meticulously to his left and then to his right. After returning his gaze to Sonic, he said, "You don't half'ta worry about that, Sonic, 'cause I don't see any sinks or stones nowhere, so jus' get in the water, okay?"

Sonic shook his head wearily. "There's no way I'm going to win this argument, is there?"

"Nope!" Tails exclaimed cheerfully.

Finally admitting defeat, the hedgehog sat down on the edge of the lake and ever-so-slowly put his feet in the water, sending a sharp chill up his legs and through his spine. It was a warm day, and Sonic was expecting the liquid to be as such. _But that would just be too convenient, wouldn't it? _he thought. It felt as if it were close to freezing, and it didn't take long for Sonic to realize that this lesson was going to be unpleasant in more ways than one.

Tails' yelling brought him back to reality. "You're almos' half way there! Keep going!"

Sonic fixed him with a pained expression so pitiful that even the most miserable person on Mobius would have felt sorry for him. Tails, however, was apparently immune to such expressions as he just stood in his spot and impatiently tapped his foot against the ground. _Talk about role-reversal,_ he thought ironically. He could practically see himself doing that sort of thing when Tails refused to take a bath. _Well, here goes._ He placed his hands firmly on the bank and gently lowered himself down into the lake.

"COLD! Cold cold cold cold cold cold cold cold cold!" As much as Sonic wanted to get out at that instant, he knew Tails would force him right back in. He couldn't run away without his shoes, either; if he even tried to sprint faster than forty miles per hour, the friction would cause his feet to burst into flame. The lake was also surprisingly deep; Sonic had to exert a lot of force to keep his head from sinking below the surface.

"Now then, was that so hard?" Tails asked condescendingly.

"Yes. Yes it was hard."

"Well… tha's not the point!"

"Then what _is_ the point, exactly?"

"So's you can have fun! Haven't you been listening this whole time?"

"No, actually, I was too terrified out of my wits to listen properly. In fact, I'm _still_ too terrified out of my wits to listen properly."

"You're jus' gonna half'ta try harder then!"

"What was that? Sorry, I wasn't listening."

Walking up to him and taking a deep breath, Tails screamed, "I SAID YOU'RE JUS' GONNA HALF'TA TRY HARDER THEN!"

_He sure is literal, I'll give him that,_ Sonic thought, trying to recover from the recent assault on his eardrums.

This experience was turning out to be just as bad as the hedgehog thought it would be. He felt extremely vulnerable since his greatest strength had been taken away from him, and the sensation of anything (especially water) encompassing his body rattled him with fear. He just kept telling himself, _This isn't happening. This isn't happening. This isn't happening. This is all just a bad dream, and it'll all be over soon._

After getting used to the weight of the water, the bad dream didn't seem to be going all that badly. His head was still above the water, and nothing horrible had emerged from the depths to eat him… _yet, _Sonic thought suspiciously. No sooner had the thought crossed his mind when he felt something latch on to the end of his foot.

"ACK! IT'S GONNA EAT ME ALIVE! HELP ME! HELP ME! AAAAHHH!" Sonic sprung out of the water and started to flail around in a way strangely similar to a platypus having a seizure. "THIS IS THE END! RUN TAILS! RUN BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!"

"Um, Sonic…"

"NO! DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME! SAVE YOURSELF!"

The fox was now trying his very best to stifle a laugh. "Sonic, look!"

"I…" He carefully looked down to where the monster was supposedly devouring his foot. Instead, all he saw was a sad-looking goldfish sucking at his toe. "I'm a complete and total doofus…"

Tails couldn't hold his guffaws back any longer. "HA HA HA HA HA! Oh, you should'a seen the look on your face, Sonic! 'It's gonna eat me alive?' Man, that's funny!" The fox clutched his sides and delved into another fit of laughter. Sonic embarrassedly plucked the fish off of his foot and threw it back into the water.

After Tails' hysterics had ended, he cautiously pushed himself onto his feet. Once he had regained his breath, he said, "Okay then. Let's get you back into the water." Sonic stared at him with a look of terror. Tails just smiled. "I promise no more gold fish are gonna get'cha!" With that, he burst into another round of giggles.

After a few seconds, Sonic's expression was replaced by a smile; an idea had just popped into his head that might just get him out of this mess. "Hey, Tails?" he asked sweetly. "Why don't you and I just get some double-layered, triple frosted chocolate fudge cake and forget about all of this. Whad'dya say?"

Tails immediately stopped giggling, substituting a huge smile for them. "Yeah! Sounds goo-" He paused. Sonic's plot was slowly dawning on him. "Waaaait a minute. You're trying to barber me, aren't you Sonic? 'Cause I don't need my hair cut at all!"

The blue hero scratched his head, trying to think of what the youngster could have possibly meant. Then it hit him. "The word's _bribe_, Tails. It means I'm trying to give you something so that I don't have to do something that I don't want to do. And yes; I'm trying to bribe you."

Tails scrunched his face up into his best thinking pose, and then said, "Alright! Let's go!"

"That's my little bro'!" Sonic said, ruffling the cub's fur. _Thank heavens for gullible children!_ He quickly tossed his shoes on, grabbed Tails, and sped off towards a restaurant on the other end of the Zone. _And far, far away from the lake! _Sonic thought joyfully.

**There you have it. Just a little thing I wrote at two in the morning on a twenty hour train ride to Boston (see, if I had told you that at the beginning, you wouldn't have read it, would you've?). Please R&R. Constructive criticism is gratefully accepted, but no flames please. Thanks again to JudasFm!**


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